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Time to Vote---Week #1 Designs--- Inspired by Art

We are loving the art inspired looks that have been uploaded to the linky party and those submitted by the designers are amazing as well.

Now, your job is to scroll through all of the beautiful photography, read about the inspirations, then vote for your favorite!

(And remember when we said things will be just a little bit different during All Stars? Well, here we go. First of all there will be no judges this season for the designers so the winner will be chosen only by popular vote. And those votes....they will be hidden so there will be no way to see who is winning until it is announced on Monday morning!)

You can find where to vote over there on the sidebar so get going! There's so much to see!

Aztec Spring---See Kate Sew﻿

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I used Aztec art, specifically, the Aztec calendar as my inspiration for this totally BOY look! The staple piece is the hand screenprinted shorts, with an all-over geometric pattern. I printed the fabric before sewing them together and even printed enough to line the hood. The shorts have front and back pockets. The front pockets have mint green trim and the back pockets are angled for extra geometric flair. The shorts have a little elastic in the back and a 2 button closure in the front.
To achieve the mint green color on the tshirt, shorts pocket binding and vest lining, I dyed white fabric and bias tape. I made sure each piece of the outfit had a little mint green.

The graphic tee is printed with a speech bubble and the word "hola" which is hello in Spanish. The Aztecs spoke a different language, but since Spanish is the language now where the Aztecs lived, it would be a modern take. The tee has a ribbed neckline and armholes. The hooded vest is my favorite part. I topstitched a chevron pattern to go with the geometric feel of the outfit. The hood is lined with more silkscreened print and there are open welt pockets on the front. The bottom is ribbed and the armholes are faced! I also made faux suede moccasins and a feather headdress to complete the aztec look.

When I first saw the challenge for week one being Art Inspired... I was stumped... So I googled Art... The very first piece that came up flooded me with memories... You see ever since I was a wee little one I have been drawn to Modern Art... why? Because I would see it and say "I can do that" Not in a how is this art kind of way but I felt inspired like I could actually do that. I can't draw a bowl of fruit, or a person, but I can draw some squares and spill some paint.

I have always been particularly drawn to Mondrian Composition. It has the cool clean modern feel that I am naturally drawn to, and it inspires me to create, because "I can do that!" Inspired by the art I made a pieced peplum ruffle, and placed it on a "blank canvas" white dress. I wanted the dress to have an art feel so I made a collar outline so it would look drawn on, and I used fun and bright colors to pop and be kid friendly. I also made a pair of yellow leggings to wear underneath.

Art-Inspired week-this theme was fascinating and really exciting for me. I love art-especially the Impressionist era artwork. I got to see a lot of them in the flesh (er....canvas?...) when I went to Paris as a teen. Hanging out at the Louvre and Musée d'Orsay was the highlight of that trip, for sure. I had a hard time choosing an art piece-I seriously had rough outfit sketches and plans for about 6 different paintings, but finally chose this one by Monet. The colors were amazing and I loved how all the women in the picture seemed like they were having a grand ol' time. It reminded me of me and my three sisters. So from the painting, I picked my color palette and fabrics out-a dusty gold, bright red, emerald green, and soft white and navy polka dot.

I started with the top-a quirky little peplum top with a narrow peter pan collar, exposed navy zipper in the back, and cap sleeves. (sleeves inspired by Rae's Geranium dress, and peplum inspired by Dana's circle skirt) The cropped leggings were made from double layered soft gold jersey, sewn and fitted and re-sewn to my little Sadie til they fit perfectly! I hand stitched some lace bows right above the hem for a vintage touch. The emerald green scalloped jacket is fully lined with a secret pocket inside! The special floral fabric used in that pocket is also used on the lining of the jacket for a fun little accent. It also has pockets in the side seams for her hands, trinkets, and candy, of course. The front of the jacket has a row of scallops with an off white covered button framed in each to keep it closed. The peter pan collar and sleeves are trimmed in a bit of piping to make them pop! I also added a little button tab on the back of the jacket for visual interest-I decided to sew it on after the jacket was sewn together-so it was quite the job hand sewing it to the outside of the jacket only! The headband (inspired by the bouquet one of the ladies is holding) was a labor of love-about 10 or so hand made felt flowers that I spent hours arranging "just so"!

This week's outfit for my daughter was inspired by Claude Monet. I love flowers and nature in general, so naturally I would be attracted to his artwork. Since wild and flowerful pants are also in, I took this as an opportunity to make some. I found a lovely fabric that was bright and "in bloom" with flowers. It was my very first time creating pants with a front zipper. I drafted the pattern from a pair of pants my daughter had already.

I created a simple top to go with the more over the top print on the pants. Just a simple tank top with some fancy details. It's a perfect little outfit for my little explorer to play around in. You can find out more about this outfit on my blog.

Vintage Cruiser Dress---iCandy Handmade

Art. I grew up with an artist father, who worked in art museums my whole life, and who now paints full time. You would think that this would be an easy challenge, right? Ha! I looked up art for hours and nothing struck me as inspirational. By accident, I found this adorable ink drawing on Etsy that both Autie and I fell in love with. Maybe not one of the great masters, but pretty darn cute, right? I would love to frame this and put it in my daughter's room.

We ended up creating a vintage-style wrap dress for this look. For some reason, bicycles, balloons and cute little turquoise and white dresses go hand in hand. The dresses are made out of kona cotton and miles of white bias tape. If you ever need a lesson in tricky bias tape situations, this dress has it all! Tight curves, inverted corners, and regular corners! I now am quite the bias tape expert :) Autie, the master embroiderer stitched the bicycle design on one pocket. The girls love love love these dresses. They are boat neck, with attached circle skirts so they twirl really well! I also fiddled around with the flutter sleeve so the bias tape could be between the flutter and the bodice, as well as hem the raw edge.

We hope you like these dresses as much as we do! Go to our blog to see lots more photos...

Jen & Autie

Petal Splash Gown---girl. Inspired
Woohoo!! It's here! The first week of All Stars! So, art inspired...it took a few false starts before I settled on my inspirational art piece for this theme. I seriously googled "art inspiration" trying to get ideas at first. But when a friend suggested the artwork of Michelle Armas, I fell in love.

For the art-inspired look this week, I chose a Michelle Armas painting called "Zombie Jeeves." The colors, the elegance, the softness, but also the beautiful saturated color just seemed to fall in line with my sewing style. I envisioned an elegant ball gown bursting with color.

I created the Petal Splash dress using white silk dupioni for the main dress. The sheen of the silk and the way that it holds its shape provide the perfect silhouette for a ball gown. The bodice and skirt are fully lined with a soft cotton sateen. The simple neckline and sleeveless design lends all focus to the spray of color spilling across the full skirt and up over the shoulder. The back of the dress zips closed with an invisible zipper. I tried to mimic the color palette of the artwork using small petals cut from a variety of satins in shades of red, magenta, pink, mustard, grey, and teal. I cut, singed, and stitched 417 petals onto the gown. It's dramatic and full of color and my daughter is In. Love. with this dress. She must have tried it on after each new petal was added. When it came time for pictures, she was all over it. Twirling, bowing, tilting her head, swaying her hips; this is a glamour girl party dress through and through. And once we finished her photo shoot, she asked if she could keep it on forever. Of course!

50 comments
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holly majoly - jaw on the floor, so impressed with all the inspiration and the final looks. My art inspiration folded into baby girl's Easter Dress - and since it still doesn't have buttons ;op - I'll just save it to share for Spring formal. How is anyone supposed to choose??? I am so glad everyone is sticking around the whole time!

Yessssssssss! Everything I dreamed of and more. You all rocked it! I wish there wasn't even voting, just a series to bask in all your awesomeness for a few weeks. I want to see all the looks for everyone!!

Yessssssssss! Everything I dreamed of and more. You all rocked it! I wish there wasn't even voting, just a series to bask in all your awesomeness for a few weeks. I want to see all the looks for everyone!!

Wow! Ultimately, I had to let my dad choose what outfit got our computer's vote. I couldn't do it. (For the record, I know why you guys hold it to one vote per IP address, but it does make things a little complicated around here where we have one computer but each of my kids want to register their own vote, and they're often different.)

You guys seriously brought it this week!!! WOwza. I am more than impressed with each one of you. This could have easily been the finale week for any other season. Such amazing quality, creativity... Oh this is sooo good! All-Stars is bringing it! So excited!!!

WOW, before the competition started I was a bit annoyed that no one got votes off...now that I see what you are all capable off I am so happy too see you all every week. AMAZING job everyone. I have no idea how to vote for just one.....

Holy cow this really is all stars because these are all awesome and WAY cute! Usually you can kind of tell which one might be going out the next week but these are all great. I don't want anyone to go home. Great job!

What a way to start the season!! I'm still mulling over my vote. Speaking of voting: While I typically LOVE seeing the vote count as the weekend progresses, I am tickled that you have chosen to go 'secret ballot.' In the past, seeing the results have significantly effected my vote cast - whether it was to vote for one of the ones near the bottom, or for a particular tutorial over another one. So, that said....GREAT CHANGE TO THE SYSTEM!!

Wow. What! This is beyond insane. These are so amazing, and I'm really happy that my favourite bloggy mama's didn't disappoint! (Lol as if they would. The sun shines out of their butts as far as I'm concerned).